262 Pa. 292 | Pa. | 1918
Opinion by
This was a proceeding for the assessment of damages for the appropriation of something less than two acres of land, out of a tract containing twenty acres belonging to the plaintiffs, by the defendant company under its right of eminent domain. The land is situate somewhere in Lackawanna County. It may be a matter of safe inference that it is not far from the City of Scranton, but its exact locality is nowhere described as it should have been. The appellees in their argument aver that it is in
Both assignments show that the case was tried on a mistaken theory of the law governing in such cases. Unquestionably in a proceeding such as this it is entirely proper to take into consideration an element of damage anything peculiar to the owner’s property that distinguishes it from the other lands in the same neighborhood giving it increased value in the public market before its appropriation. Otherwise the landowner would not be receiving the full compensation for his deprivation which the law intends. If he could convert his land in the general market at the time of its appropriation by the railroad and receive an enhanced price over and above what his neighbors could receive for theirs lacking the peculiar advantages possessed by his, there is no reason why he should not be correspondingly compensated by the railroad company. And this is equally true where the peculiarity which gives enhanced value to his extends to lands lying in a particular locality, whether owned by one or several. But it is always to be borne in mind that the law does not presume the existence of such peculiarity and the loss on account of its appropriation by the railroad; it always rests upon a party claiming the extraordinary damage first of all to show it, and to show that it was available to Mm for the purpose of conversion in the public market at the time he was deprived of his
We think this witness was entirely incompetent to express an opinion as to the market value of the land, and the evidence he gave should not have been received.
Turning now to the other assignment. A witness called by the defendant, E. G. Carpenter, had testified that in his judgment the market value of the tract before the appropriation of a part was $3,000; that its value after the appropriation of a part was $2,500, and that plaintiffs’ damages sustained were $500. On his cross-examination he testified that in estimating the value of the land after appropriation he had taken into consideration as enhancing the value of the remainder the fact of the station having been built by defendant company near the property. On motion of plaintiffs’ counsel the entire testimony of this witness was stricken out, on the ground that this was not a proper element of set-off. True, the
The second and fourth assignments of error are sustained, and the judgment is reversed with a venire facias de novo.